Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-03-25
ALetter from " est Burke.

Editor of the Essen County Herald:
Being on the invalid list there comes
to me an inspiration to write a letter
TO your paper, and you can print it or
throw it into the waste basket as to
you seems good.
The one great discussion in this vi
cinity today is the weather and sugar
ing. One of our Oldest men, one who
has always lived in town, told Inc the
other day he thought he never saw the
snow so deep here as now but there
are SO many opinions as to its real
depth, will not express mine, only
knowing it is too deep for me to ven
ture into it off from the road. This
town and county is accounted among
the best in the State for the produc-
ton of maple sugar. Here it is con-
sidered one Of oar most important
crops, as until within three years il
has been sold for not less than 10c per
pound, and since then it has only
brought from 6 to &c, and ] have
been told that McCleary, the great
sugar buyer, says dry sugar will not
bring over &c this season. Is it won
der, then, that people are at a stand
still to know what to do about sugar
ing! Sap here is all gathered by teams,
and unless snow goes off a good deal
before sugaring commences, many will
have from two to three miles of road
to shovel before they can get team
over their sugar roads. Can they hire
hel p at $40 per month, shovel their
roads, burn their wood and make their
sugar, sell it for &c, and have anything
left for themselves? Sugar places here
vary from 500 to 1000 trees, with, per-
haps, more that have 1000 trees than
less, and generally speaking, every
farmer who sugars at all expects 10
make more or less to sell. Some, on
account of the low price of sugar, are
cutting down their sugar places, and
selling the wood to the Railroad Com
pany or drawing it to some of the will
ages, and others are talking of doing
the same thing. Four It wood brings
So % per cord on the line of the rail
road, and 16inch block wood 81.
The amount of feed sold here by
dealers, in the form of shorts and corn
meal, with some fine feed, is truly sur
prising. Twas in one of three places
where it is kept for sale a week or ten
DAYS ago and it seemed as though
there was enough shorts in sacks to
keep two men busy u week carrying it
out and loading it on to purchasers
sleds, and last night | heard there were
but few sacks left. Yet there are nen
within two miles of the village who
claim to raise over 800 bushels of grain
per year. Three or four hundred
bushels of grain yield annually is very
common among our farmers.
Phosphates Of all kinds and sorts are
for sale around here, and Of course, a
great quantity is used. Some buy
ground bones at a cost of &c per pounG
and sulphuric acid to cut it with, ant
MAKE their own phosphates costing
less than $50 per ton. The ingalls,
Bros. of Lyndon Centre tell they have
; tried it side by side with bought phos
pilates OF various brands and canno
p see any difference, and last year they
used none but the home made.
We notice that in many towns o
your county there is a dearth of news
Cannot you arouse the latent ambi
: ton in your correspondents? Thos'
who were once residents of Essex coun
L. ty are still interested in its news, ant
of course the one especial thing sough
for in the HERALD. A. r.. b.
March IA, 1897.